New trajectory for Spirit (MER-A)

[chris]

Horizons finally has the complete trajectory for Spirit, from launch to arrival at Mars. The XYZ is here:

http://www.celestiaproject.net/~claurel/trajec ... spirit.xyz

This .xyz has position samples every two hours. If you want to use this, you already have Jack's MER add-on; an edit of the .ssc will be required to make it use the new .xyz file.

--Chris

[JackHiggins]

Nice one- thanks! But there seems to be a mistake or somthing at the end of it- spirit flies through mars and out the other side, and carries on heading directly away from the sun until it's nearly 500,000 km away from mars, then the xyz ends...?! Maybe just a mistake with horizons, but nice to get nevertheless!

[chris]

Interesting . . . I did notice that the trajectory ended January 6th instead of the expected January 4th. Looks like the last couple days should be truncated . . .

--Chris